John Chichester-Constable

John Chichester-Constable, who has died aged 84, was the colourful and genial
squire of Burton Constable Hall, a splendid Elizabethan house which he spent
his life restoring.

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The sperm whale skeleton in Burton Constable Hall

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John Chichester-Constable

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An engraving of the sperm whale which was washed up at Tunstall in 1825. Its skeleton was put on display at Burton Constable Hall Photo: TONY BARTHOLOMEW

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Burton Constable Hall

5:47PM GMT 23 Dec 2011

The Constables have held the estate for more than 700 years, and John Chichester-Constable enjoyed the hereditary title of the 46th Lord Paramount of the Seigneury of Holderness, which theoretically gave him the income from all wrecks washed up on the coast. In the 19th century, these included the carcase of an unfortunate sperm whale, which died after beaching at Tunstall in 1825.

The whale’s skeleton was mounted on a wrought iron framework in the grounds of the estate in 1836, where it came to the attention of Herman Melville, who would write Moby Dick 16 years later. In chapter 102 of that great book, Ishmael poses the rhetorical question: “But how now Ishmael? How is it, that you, a mere oarsman in the fishery, pretend to know aught about the subterranean parts of the whale?”

The answer comes: “At a place in Yorkshire, England, Burton Constable by name, a certain Sir Clifford Constable has in his possession the skeleton of a Sperm Whale. Sir Clifford’s whale has been articulated throughout; so that like a great chest of drawers, you can open and shut him, in all his long cavities — spread out his ribs like a gigantic fan — and swing all day upon his lower jaw.

“Locks are to be put upon some of his trap doors and shutters; and a footman will show round future visitors with a bunch of keys at his side. Sir Clifford thinks of charging twopence for a peep at the whispering gallery in the spinal column; threepence to hear the echo in the hollow of his cerebellum; and sixpence for the unrivalled view from his forehead.”

The skeleton can still be seen by visitors at the Hall today.

The Constables were recusant Roman Catholics. The family’s most notable member was the collector, antiquarian and Grand Tourist, William Constable (1721-91), who met Jean-Jacques Rousseau and turned to Deism. He brought in a team of craftsmen to transform Burton Constable (whilst retaining its Elizabethan character).

These included the architect Thomas Lightoller, the furniture maker Thomas Chippendale, and Capability Brown, who remodelled the park. A collector of scientific instruments and a member of the Royal Society, William Constable was the ancestor against whom John measured himself.

John Raleigh Chichester-Constable was born in London on April 6 1927. His mother was Gladys Hanley, of Irish extraction. His martinet father, Brigadier Raleigh Chichester-Constable, was a professional soldier who decamped to the dower house, Wood Hall, where John was brought up. He was sent to Eton – flouting the family’s Stonyhurst tradition – where he was blissfully happy and twice named Victor Ludorum.

At the end of the war he served as a private in his father’s regiment, the Rifle Brigade, and was stationed from 1945 in Germany where, among other duties, he was involved in the grim task of clearing up Belsen.

After a spell at the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, during the 1950s Chichester-Constable took various jobs in London, from selling encyclopedias to working for North Sea Ferries. In 1962 he married Gay Sawbridge in what turned out to be an unconventional but very successful marriage. She was direct, intelligent and independent. Together they made Burton Constable their mission in life.

Chichester-Constable’s father died in 1962, leaving a neglected 6,000-acre estate, a third of which had to be sold to pay death duties. The main house had not been inhabited by the family for more than 30 years and had been very knocked about during the Second World War, both by the British Army (which had requisitioned it) and the Germans (who targeted it with two parachute mines in 1941, blowing in all the doors and windows). Damp, dry-rot and the deathwatch beetle were rampant, and the roof was in such poor condition that one expert described it as “like Swiss cheese”.

When a storm broke, the household would rush around with buckets, bowls or any vessel that came to hand to catch the drips. Almost everything in the house needed rewiring, re-plumbing, replastering, re-pointing or replacing.

In 1965 a Historic Buildings grant became the catalyst for the 20-year restoration programme which, through the devotion of an army of local volunteers, transformed the building. Crucial to this was the revival of the estate into a successful business .

The remote location of the Hall, eight miles east of Hull, meant that the conventional tactic of opening the house to the public was unlikely to raise enough money to fund necessary works. So the Chichester-Constables became pioneers of many country house activities that are commonplace today: caravan parks; country fairs; pop concerts; weddings; even steam engine and custom car rallies.

Chichester-Constable himself loved machines and at different times owned a motor-glider; a “caraboat” (a combination of a caravan and a boat); a microlight; a water scooter; and — for grand occasions — a dark green Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Typically, he initiated hovercraft championships in the park at Burton Constable. Amongst their other ventures to promote Burton Constable, he and his wife even managed the pop group The Hullabaloos.

Chichester-Constable gave his time to many causes in the county and was High Sheriff of East Yorkshire in 1979-80. Away from Yorkshire, he was an active member of the Order of Malta and Hospitaller of the Order between 1992 and 1995. This meant organising its annual pilgrimage to Lourdes with a large contingent of malades.

Towards the end of his life Chichester-Constable became increasingly concerned to secure the future of the Hall, and in 1992 the Burton Constable Foundation was established, following negotiations with the National Heritage Memorial Fund (which provided a generous endowment) and Leeds City Council. This established the Hall and its important art collection in public ownership.

John Chichester-Constable continued to live in one wing of the house, which the family now owns on a 250-year lease, and would make occasional forays to London to lunch friends at the Ritz. Recently he also oversaw the restoration of the Hall’s walled garden. His wife died in 1989, and he is survived by their daughter .